Monday, September 4, 2017

My wife is still employed

Some of you may recall that my wife (Anne) brought her job with her as we moved to Canada. Her employer - Oracle - was willing to do that, and it works for us in ways related to immigration and other things.

So you might understand that there was a bit of heartburn a week or so after we arrived when rumors of a massive layoff began circulating at work. These rumors were so significant that all work on hardware projects stopped. (My wife is a hardware diagnostics developer - she breaks microprocessors for a living, and she's very good at it.) Instead everyone was making connections on LinkedIn and revising resumes. This was serious stuff.

And the rumors were right. Friday, Sept 1, 2017 saw a large layoff; hundreds of people. This was reported in the press, so I am not telling tales out of school. Nearly all of Oracle's SPARC development staff was let go.

Nearly - but not quite - all. A few were kept on, and Anne is one of those who stays employed, at least for now. Exactly what that means entirely clear yet. Tomorrow some of that information should start to flow. I won't be able to write about most of what she learns, so there won't be a lot of closure on this. Time will tell how it all goes down, though.

Most importantly, we know a lot of people who are now looking for work. It was a very long weekend, with people checking on each other. We wish all those impacted only the best. May you find some place better to work, or something better to do, whatever that means for you.

Take care.